Reporting neighbours wood burner

[Smallngrumpy]

About 3 months ago my neighbour had wood burner installed . From day it has totally stank, a sort of overpowering acrid smell accompanied by black smoke. I can't hang my washing up, or open bathroom window when have shower or even just sit in my living room as comes through vents.
I have spoken to them but it didn't go down well and nothing has changed.
Everyone says to report but is there really any point?
TLDR is there any point reporting my neighbours wood burner?

@whowhatwerewhy We are in a Smoke control area, so should that make a difference?

It was on the news last week that log burners are worse for air quality than diesel lorries.

It looks like they either don't know what they are doing or don't care . I have a wood burner and at first I had some nightmare black smoke scenarios which the neighbour's quite rightly complained about. Once you get the hang of it and follow the correct process for lighting there should be a haze only coming out of the flue. I would report for sure. Excellent photo evidence.

Environmental Health will probably deal with this. Ring your council, you can't live with this every winter. The neighbours are supposed to be burning kiln dried wood.

Check whether they're HETAs approved for a start, failing that, it needs to be approved to building control I believe.

Again, if in a smoke control area, need to be burning smokeless fuel, or wood below 20% moisture.

We are not smoke controlled but do burn smokeless fuel and seasoned wood. Our chimney only really smokes when we are adding fuel or just lighting up.

It may be due to the weather conditions - when it's foggy or humid here, the smoke can sit lower and be more visible

Hi , I've no idea if being in a smoke free area will make a difference, give environmentally healthy a call and they can advise you .
They told me they should only burn wood of less than 20% moisture .
There only advice was speak to my neighbour ( nope he's not nice ) or push a note through saying he was causing a nuisance and advising him to use smokeless fuel or well seasoned wood.

Just give environmental health a call and go from there 🤞 you have a better result than me .

Gosh op that sounds so bad,.,

The top of their flue looks very sooty, are they burning coal in it? Coal has a very strong smell, or as others have said wet or treated wood. Ours is over 10 years old and our flue isn't sooty like that. Ours never produces black smoke just white smoke when it first gets going.

@WonderingWanda

Depends on the coal.

Anthracite doesn't smell.

We have the same with our neighbour. Fed up of never being able to hang washing out, can't open any windows, kids can't use the garden etc. Fed up of it getting into my house and having to run all my extractor fans for hours.

We complained last year and it seems the neighbour got a warning. Nothing changed, if anything he's using it more. It absolutely stinks. He doesn't give a shit what he's causing us to breathe in (he also got a warning for burning plastic in the garden).

I think this is a slightly exaggerated post 👆🏼 Abut 4 of my neighbours have wood stoves and when they first fire them up you get a smell / whiff off smoke around ( outside ). But once they are up to temperature you can’t smell them at all.

@Diyextension If you are talking about my post, then I assure you what I am saying is true. Its an acrid smell.
From what you say , your neighbours are using their burners properly, right fuel etc. There are 2 more burners up the street and you can hardly smell them, so I agree, when used properly they are not a real issue.
That is not my case. It is black smoke and acrid smell.

Who knows what they are using as fuel though .
Just because it's called a wood burner , they pretty much burn anything

Report it to environmental health. The number is either on the council website or the council will out you through. I reported my neighbour after they were burning something that kept setting my DC asthma off. We also could not dry washing out. They gave me a link to upload the video, came and had a look at the smoke blowing and then spoke to the neighbours. There was never any smoke again. The council were so helpful. Good luck.

As far as Ive read, very few people are actually fined, so Im risking this fallout for nothing.

This is true. There was a lot of quotes from councils on the recent articles about the government planning to “crack down” on wood burning stoves by giving the council more fining abilities; with council leaders saying they don’t have the staff or the finances to actually investigate and fine people for burning wet wood.

They will get an automatically generated letter advising them that a complaint has been made and asking them to review what they’re burning. If they are the type of person that might change their ways after that, it could be worthwhile.

We lived in an area without gas until quite recently, most people burned either wood or coal.

Apart from start up, most fumes were invisible and fairly odourless, but some people burned any old shite. Treated wood, cut up pallets, bits of furniture, I can only imagine this has got worse in the current fuel crisis.

One guy seemed to burn a mixture of damp cow shit and old tyres, always a black gunge oozing out of his chimney, lord knows what he was really burning.

@FiveHundredDucksWentOutOneDay They are not the type of people to change their ways.
I find them to be oblivious to other people and how they may be affected, so I dont hold out much hope.
If they will only get a letter, it seems pointless.

Who knows what they are using as fuel though .

Just because it's called a wood burner , they pretty much burn anything

This is true. “Wood burner” as a name has only really become prevalent since they became trendy. They used to be just called “stoves”.

Our elderly neighbourhood was convinced that we never lit our fire because he had never seen smoke coming out of the chimney. Probably because we only burn wood seasoned for four or five years.

I have known people who will burn absolutely anything. Wet sticks, old treated pallets, fencing, even painted doors. Hopefully, with the latest publicity they will see the error of their ways.

They really are not green even if using the right fuel god knows what your breathing I would call environmental health.

@Diyextension lucky you having neighbours who use theirs properly. Unfortunately some don't even bother getting them up to temperature.

Our neighbour's smoke comes straight down his roof and pools round our side door into the kitchen. If it was burning at the right temperature it wouldn't be drifting downwards. It's also not a modern stove so god knows what's coming out of it. He burns it every day including during last year's heatwave. He has 2 chimneys pumping crap out so we can't avoid it (houses are back to back and his is a storey lower than us so his chimneys are lower than our house).

We don't usually smell the other neighbour's log burner as they are further away.

All complaining did was make the neighbour an even bigger arsehole. He now blasts his tv speakers for hours.

Now the rules seem to be changing I might complain again this summer. He used to be a local councillor though so probably knows well what he can get away with.

Thanks for everyones input
Think I will not report at moment and see if rules are tightened/followed this summer.
Maybe also have another chat with the other neighbours and see if we can put pressure on there.
not hopeful though.

This

One thing to be wary of: If you plan to sell up in the next decade or so you are meant to declare any disputes with neighbours. Perhaps a report to environmental health will fit that category (though perhaps a solicitor can put me straight if this is not right?). This may also be of use:www.problemneighbours.co.uk/neighbour-guide-wood-burning-stoves-chimineas.html